Twins and a Foe

Today I am grateful for the luscious breeze we enjoyed yesterday. I am also grateful for the many connections I have with other people in addiction recovery and how much wisdom they share with me.

Many quotes in my gratitude journal lately have been speaking to me and hitting home. Here's another one:

"Gratitude is twin sister to humility; pride is foe to both." (James E. Talmage)

The twins of gratitude and humility are what I need. Learning about humility and being more humble, less ego-driven has been crucial not only in my recovery from alcoholism, but in my life overall. I often say that gratitude and self-pity cannot coexist. The same is true of false pride (the dangerous kind) and gratitude. When I stay in the gratitude, I am humbled by my good fortune and blessings, and I thank the sources that brought me said blessings. (Sources like other people, nature, the Higher Force at work in the world, and so on.) That makes me less likely to take the credit myself. (Sure, we may deserve some credit for our effort, but false pride wants me to take all the credit.)

If pride takes hold, I often forget about gratitude because I start to develop a self-righteousness and my focus gets too narrow. I can't afford to forget about gratitude. It is too important to my overall well-being, but particularly my emotional and spiritual well-being.

There are always opportunities for lessons in these areas. I have learned much about my level of pride and about humility from the act of blogging. Early on after I started blogging, I wanted to see comments and increasing page views. I wanted to be noticed, followed, patted on the back. (I hate to admit this, but it's true. My ego wasn't right-sized.) Over time, I realized how much I was gaining from the blogging experience, and how much my gratitude was deepening. If I wasn't reaching a wide audience, I was still reaching myself.

I do appreciate every comment my blog gets and I always respond. I appreciate family members and friends who tell me that my blog gives them ideas and inspiration. Today I realize that this is more than enough. My pride wanted more. Humility showed me I was getting just what I needed and then some.

And that Higher Force is directing me to just keep doing what I'm doing, so I will. But not for a few days. I am taking another blog break for family travels. I won't be taking a gratitude break though. Thanks for being out there. Onward! See you next week!